Protomartyr: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

December 4, 2015 by ROBIN HILTON The Detroit band Protomartyr makes loud, screeching rock that’s more thoughtful than thrilling. It only takes a few seconds of the group’s brightly lit Tiny Desk performance for things to get pretty deep: “False happiness is on the rise,“ enigmatic frontman Joe Casey deadpans. “See the victims piled high in a room without a roof.“ The song “Why Does It Shake?“ is from the band’s profound, poetic, often grousing third album The Agent Intellect, a title derived from Aristotle